


The Majority Who Participate

by koanju (verstehen)



Series: The Heaviest Penalty [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 04:30:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verstehen/pseuds/koanju
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” <br/>― Thomas Jefferson</p>
<p>Governor Scott McCall has redone his office to make work easier for his chief of staff. Unfortunately, his chief of staff and long-time best friend, Stiles Stilinski, doesn't seem inclined to return the favor. For that matter, neither does Lieutenant Governor Allison Argent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Majority Who Participate

“I really like her,” Scott McCall said, looking up at the sound of shuffling papers in his best friend’s hands.

“Yeah, I know, buddy. Did you see how she schmoozed Harris at that dinner last week? Sheer genius,” Stiles said, not bothering to even look at Scott as he organized at his own desk across the room. Typically, a chief of staff had his own office near the governor’s but when had Scott and Stiles ever done anything normally? Within the first week, they’d discovered the ‘separate offices’ thing didn’t work and Stiles complained constantly about having to run back and forth. Thankfully the governor’s office was big enough for two desks to fit. “That doesn’t mean you can date Allison. It’s a terrible idea and not only because House Majority Leader Argent will cut you.”

If Scott wasn’t as – if not more, given his interest in Allison – terrified of Victoria Argent as Stiles, he’d find his best friend’s inability to actually call Argent by anything less formal than her title hilarious.

Stiles dropped a sheaf of papers at least three inches thick on top of Scott’s desk. “Hey, can you set up an appointment with some tech guys?” Scott asked, half on impulse. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make the office go green.”

Stiles laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I call up Danny Mahealani. You remember him; he did our campaign website.”

“Yeah.” Scott started shuffling through the paperwork. It looked like a bunch of stuff he just needed to sign. He could hear his mother’s voice in his head, though: _never sign anything you don’t read!_ But Scott trusted Stiles. It would all be legitimate. “He seemed like a good guy. Tech start-up, right?”

“Yeah, my dad recommended him.” Stiles finally looked at Scott, his grin a little crooked and tired. “Apparently a juvenile arrest record for hacking puts you on the fuzz’s radar. Who knew?”

Scott leaned over so he could punch Stiles in the arm. Stiles hammed it up with a pout as he rubbed his arm before shaking his head. “But seriously, man, you can’t date Allison.”

“I think she likes me too.”

“It’s bad enough you’re both single,” Stiles muttered. “But since you’re in your twenties, you don’t need to worry about being single hurting you _too_ much politically,” he mused. “On the other hand, if you actually _publicly date_ your Lieutenant Governor… Well. It could go one of two ways: storybook romance or political disaster.”

“I know.” He sighed at his friend and raised his eyebrows. He loved Stiles like a brother, he really did, but his friend’s insistence on beating his point to death could wear on a person. “I’m not going to do anything with Allison. I just… I wanted you to know I like her. She was a good pick.”

“You just didn’t expect to like her _that_ much, huh?” Stiles dropped a hand on Scott’s shoulder and squeezed. “I am sorry about it. I know I joke but. You know that, right?”

Scott and Stiles had been together since they were in diapers. Stiles had called him the night he’d lost his virginity. Scott had been the first person Stiles had come out to when he’d finally admitted he was bisexual. They knew each other’s secrets. They knew each other and Scott knew Stiles meant it. Teasing was a form of affection for his friend. He gave Stiles his best smile and nodded. “Yeah. You were right to say no when I asked. She’s a much better choice. I’ll live.” He chuckled. “You know my romantic timing’s always sucked.”

Stiles laughed and let go of Scott’s shoulder. “Remember _Erica_?”

Scott stifled a sigh and the memory of his first love back in high school. Freshmen year, he’d found her on the ground in the middle of an epileptic seizure, yelled at the people pointing and laughing, and even made sure to delete the cell phone video some jackass was taking. Then, when it was over, he’d helped her to the nurse’s office.

Erica Reyes had tracked him down the next day and shyly asked him out to the movies. They’d dated for three years and she’d even seemed to like Stiles, despite his insistence she was wrong about the moral of the golden age Batman comics. The entire time they’d been dating, Erica had preferred sweatpants, jeans, and baggy sweaters. Her hair was poufy and wild and, like most teenagers, she’d had acne she’d confessed was a side effect of her medication. She wasn’t anything like the beautiful popular girls in their high school but Scott had thought she was perfect.

Then one day in junior year, Erica had come to school with her hair styled, the shortest miniskirt he’d ever seen, a low-cut shirt Stiles had called a corset, and a leather jacket. She’d grabbed the attention of the entire school and officially became one of the “hot” girls.

The day after her transformation, she’d broken up with Scott. “Oh yeah, I remember the girl who grew up to run her own modeling agency,” he said dryly. “She actually sent me an email after I got elected. It was nice to hear from her.”

“Maybe you should ask her out?” Stiles suggested, his voice gentle. “We could use the boost from the family values people and it might take your mind off Allison.”

Scott shook his head, determined to make his way through the stack of paperwork, even pausing to read the mix of statements, endorsements, and appointments Stiles was having him sigh. “Sounds like a great idea.” He kept his voice even, and hopeful, like he was seriously considering the suggestion. “I’m sure the family values people would really understand if I took her and her husband out to dinner on a date.”

Stiles bust out laughing. “Well, I can’t say many other candidates have courted the polygamy vote!”

“Mary Carey did run for the post,” he pointed out as Stiles continued to chuckle. “So have you decided who you want on that task force?”

“It’s all set in the bill. It’s labor leaders, someone from the education committee, and someone appointed by the Governor’s office,” Stiles explained, settling down and booting up his computer. “I’m going to send you a draft of that speech for the thing we’ve got next week.” He snapped his fingers a few times, a frown on his face. “Oh, yeah, the FOP dinner thing. Take a look at it and give me notes if you want it re-written. I think I basically wrote it like if I was talking to my dad so it should go over pretty well.”

Scott paused in his work and took a few minutes to study his best friend, taking in his averted eyes and fingers tapping against the desk. “You said ‘someone appointed by the Governor.’” He narrowed his eyes at his friend. “That suggests to me you pawned the job off on someone else.”

“You always were the smart one,” Stiles said, his shoulders tensing and Scott had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to like what his friend told him. “I gave it to Derek Hale.”

Scott liked to think he wasn’t an angry person. The memory of his dick of a dad usually stopped his anger from getting too out of hand on the rare occasion there was something that bugged him. Remembering Stiles telling him when they were twelve that Scott reminded him of Bruce Banner sort of took care of the rest. But there was something about Derek Hale that just set him off every time he saw the man, even before he’d stolen those votes on the reform bill. “You could have picked literally _anyone_ in the building. A janitor. I would have been happier to hear you got Greg, the security guard who works overnights, to chair the task force. But you asked Derek Hale.”

“I _know_ , okay?” Stiles sighed and rested his chin on his hand, giving Scott an apologetic look. “I originally wanted to ask him as a symbolic gesture, start working with him and maybe talk him away from being so damned stubborn about the budget. But then –“

“You saw the newspaper this morning and you had to,” he finished Stiles’s sentence for him. For all that Stiles and his dad were on good terms now, Scott couldn’t say the same about ten years ago. Their teenage years hadn’t been the greatest – Scott’s dad leaving when he was ten, Stiles’s mom dying when he was twelve – and Stiles’s increasingly desperate antics had driven a deep wedge in the relationship with his father. It gave him a soft spot a mile wide for people with troubled family members because he remembered all the ways his father had tried to pull him back from the brink. Scott sighed a little at his friend. “He could use it as a platform against us.”

Stiles rubbed his forehead and nodded. “Yeah, but not much of one. The task force is basically a fact-finding mission, Scott. He’s going to have to sit there and listen to testimony. It might work for us; make him loosen his stranglehold on the budget.”

Scott had to admit his friend had a point but it didn’t make him less annoyed. “Fine. You should have talked to me about it first.”

“Granted,” Stiles agreed. “I’m sorry, man.”

Scott smiled at the apology. That was one of the reasons he and Stiles worked so well together; they just couldn’t stay angry or upset when one of them screwed up. “Accepted. Now speaking of the budget?”

Stiles groaned but before he could say anything, there was a sharp knock on the door. “Come in,” he called and both of them stared as the door opened.

On the other side was Allison Argent. Scott couldn’t help the way his smile grew at the sight of her, despite the angry frown on her face. Her hair was swept back into a tight bun, with bangs escaping around the side of her face. “What can I do for you, Allison?” he asked, setting down his pen and putting on the most open and available expression he could. Whatever idiot had pissed her off would get a good kick in the ass from him – after she was done with him.

“I have a bone to pick with you, Stiles!” she snapped, rounding on his best friend. “You appointed _Hale_?”

Scott resisted competing urges to bury his face in his hands and start laughing. But Allison looked beautiful when she was angry; her brown eyes sparked and her cheeks were flushed. “I just yelled at him for that.”

“And I didn’t appoint him,” Stiles defended himself. “I just _asked_. He hasn’t even said yes!”

Scott didn’t get the feud between the Hales and the Argents. After watching her mother absolutely decimate Derek Hale on the floor one day, she’d confessed it went back to her grandfather but refused to say anything more. “Hales get _no support from this office_!” Allison hissed. “This is going to be seen as a statement of support of a _corrupt politician_!”

Stiles did something complicated with his face; his mouth opened a little in an expression of shock while his eyebrows tightened in a warning sign of anger. “I think you’re letting your family influence you,” he said and, unlike his face, his voice was calm and even. “And you’re overstepping your bounds, Ms. Lieutenant Governor.”

“ _Stiles_!” Scott snapped because that was just below the belt and uncalled for.

“No, Scott.” Stiles pushed away from his desk and scowled at the both of them. “She does not get to stomp into your office and yell at me for this decision because her family’s got a bug up their asses about the Hales. He’s on our side and we need him.”

Then Stiles did some stomping of his own, brushing right past Allison on his way out. The doorframe rattled with the force of it when he slammed the door behind him. Scott scrubbed his face and looked sheepishly at Allison. “That crack was out of line,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re not the one who needs to apologize,” Allison muttered but some of the tightness went out of her shoulders and she dropped down into one of the empty chairs. “Did you know he was going to do that?”

“No,” he said. “And I wasn’t particularly happy with him either but he’s got a point. We could use Hale’s support on –“

“We don’t need it, especially now,” Allison cut him off. “With his uncle’s scandal, he’s losing all his built-up political capital.”

“ _His uncle’s_ scandal,” Scott pointed out, moving out from behind his desk to drag a chair over to sit next to her. “Not his. If he’s clean, he’ll recover.” He gave her a brief smile. “But since you’re here, we should probably talk about the budget.”

Allison stared at him a moment and then laughed. “Okay, okay. Let me go get my laptop. I’ve got my notes on the initiatives we might be able to cut.”

“Take your time,” Scott told her softly as she stood. “I’ll wait for you.” 


End file.
